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Thursday, March 30, 2017

Your Handwriting Matters

Today is National Pencil Day, did you know? (There's a holiday for everything...) In honor of such a prestigious event, today was the day to finish up this post about loving and styling your handwriting- because it always starts with a pencil :).

I've been honored to lead a couple of workshops recently about lettering and handwriting. Gathering my thoughts for the why of those events before I planned the how reminded me of just how important handwriting is to me. I wrote about it a couple of years ago in this post, and revisited those ideas for the little book I put together for the workshop.

You can click over to read all the details, but here is the gist:
Your handwriting matters:
1. Not because it is perfect
2. Because it reveals your personality and emotions
3. Because it is Incarnational in an often impersonal world
4. Because it is sentimental
5. Because it connects us with the history of the past and creates history for the future
6. Because it is a witness and testimony to what you believe and think
7. Because it is a connection that binds our words to our actions

In the workshops I gave, we talked about things we like or don't like about our handwriting, tips for improving your everyday handwriting, styling lettering for something special, etc. We had lots of practice paper to doodle on and try new things and then did a few make-and-takes as well.

Most of what I know and can do has come from years (I mean like starting back in junior high...) of doodling, trying new styles, imitating someone else's letter formation, etc. until I could create many styles on my own. I am always trying new things and looking for new lettering inspiration.

Common questions included what some of my favorite supplies are. I have.so.many.pens but always love experimenting with new tools. The supplies that I use all the time for everyday writing as well as for special things like my #SundayReadingsScriptureDoodles are nothing super fancy. Really the trick is trying out different pens and markers and finding what you like. You can make art with anything. Try out new supplies until you find what you are most comfortable with.

Here are some of the supplies that I use all the time: (affiliate links)
-Ticonderoga Pencils (the ONLY pencil with using in my opinion)
-Regular Sharpies (seriously great for practicing, cheap, last through lots of projects)
-Pentel White Erasers (a good eraser is a necessity- these are cheap and work really really well)
-Sakura Micron Pigma Pens (various sizes) (these are my absolute favorite for outlining and are the final tool for how I create most of the printables on this site.)
-Stabilo Pens (.88 Multicolor pack) (a little bit more of an investment, but they are high quality and so fun. I use mine all the time and have had them for almost two years)
-Sakura Brush Tip Pens (I'm still working on this technique, but if you want to give brush tip pens a try I would recommend these pens)
-Papermate Ink Joy (these are my favorite everyday-grading-note-writing teacher pens. They are so cheap, come in packs of 8 different colors, and write boldly and smoothly)

Do you have any favorites that you would recommend? Let me know in the comments!

So if you're interested in why your handwriting matters, why you should use it more often, how you can style it, and more, you might like my short little ebook.
It contains:
-The seven reasons why I think handwriting is so important
-General tips for styling and loving your handwriting
-Sample manuscript and cursive fonts/styles
-Steps for creating the popular "fake" calligraphy that anyone can create
-Ideas for a couple simple banners/borders

"Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece." -Saint John Paul the Great

Look to Him and Be Radiant is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking Amazon In other words, if you click through to Amazon from some of the books or products I recommend and make a purchase, I get a tiny percentage at no cost to you.